In-House Engineering for Midlands Cold Box
Utilising our Scheuerle clamp system, with in-house designed transport brackets, our Team deliver the first of three cold box sections to the West Midlands.
Due to the dimensions of the 4.4m high, 35m long cargo, our Team were required to engineer a bespoke solution to deliver the first, and largest, of the three cargoes.
Flat trailers and turntable technology would provide an unsuitable option as the loaded cargo would prove unable to traverse the UK motorway network, therefore our Team began developing a solution in which the cargo would be suspended between two multi-axle bogie trailers. Employing our clamp trailer, which is predominantly used for the transportation of wind turbine tower sections, would provide the necessary hydraulic capabilities. This would allow us to raise and lower the height of the load as the route demanded but would require additional modification to engineer a suitable system for securing the load to the trailer.
Engineered in meticulous detail, our Team designed a bracket system to secure the load to the trailers. This bracket and pin system would attach to the cold box, providing us with an anchoring point for the clamp to secure to the load. Each of the brackets, pins, adaptors, box sections and lugs were fully BS EN:1993 and PD 970:2005 compliant, and would allow us to securely transport the loaded 45m long rigid cargo the 110 miles from collection to delivery. Once design of the system was complete, and having undertaken 3D Solidworks simulations to analyse the behaviour of the components, fabrication of each element began.
Whilst our Engineering Team manufactured the loading solution, our Consulting Team analysed the route, undertaking extensive swept path analysis reports to ensure the safe delivery of the 76 Tonne cargo. Due to the length of the cargo and loaded vehicle, numerous sections of the route demanded street furniture removal, road widening, parking restrictions, tree pruning and manual steering requirements. This also included full motorway closures to allow the combination to undertake contraflow manoeuvres and continue on the route.
Employing our in-house designed and engineered bracket system, we loaded the cold box to our clamp trailer and set off on our 110 mile journey. Departing early afternoon we exited Eggborough under the escort of our Code of Practice pilot cars and accompanied by Humberside Police. With the movement through South Yorkshire taking place at night, our convoy parked on the M62 at Hensall, and as darkness fell we began the evening stage. Having been met by Leicester Police the following morning, we completed the final stage of our journey, from Junction 28 of the M1 safely arriving at the delivery site.
With the largest of the three cargoes safely delivered to site, the two smaller 29m and 25m loads followed the same route over the proceeding days successfully completing the project.
